The presence of particular types of insects in an area can have several adverse affects. The presence of particular types of mosquitoes, for example, may raise health concerns related to Malaria. Similarly, the presence of particular types of agricultural pests (e.g., the light brown apple moth) may raise economic concerns for farmers who might lose entire crops. To address such concerns, it is important for agriculture and urban areas both to have an effective and efficient mechanism for monitoring different types of insects.
Insect control can be more effective when monitoring for a specific insect in a specific location. In California, for example, a new species of insect called the Light Brown Apple Moth has been recently discovered, which could cost the state of California millions of dollars either in lost crops or conflict with the citizens of the state that don't want the area to be sprayed with a pesticide. By using an “insect monitoring trap,” however, one can time pesticide treatment for best results and for reducing the total use of pesticide. A grower may, for example, simply set up monitoring traps in a crop area and watch for pests that might threaten his/her crop.
Although several types of monitoring traps are currently available, these traps generally exhibit many undesirable characteristics. For example, because the housing for most of these traps are made of cardboard, they are typically not durable enough to be used for multiple seasons and must be monitored by viewing the traps through an open end since they are not transparent. Also, because these traps typically require a separate hanger wire, at least a two distinct manufacturing processes are typically required—one for the insect trap housing and one for manufacturing/inserting the hanger wire. Use of such a hanger wire is undesirable since it makes recycling the insect trap burdensome (i.e., because the hanger wire and housing are made of different materials) and also limits the locations onto which the insect trap may be placed (e.g., because the hanger wire must have a clearance greater than the diameter of a placement location). Another limitation of currently available insect traps is the inefficient use of lures (e.g., pherenome lures, which may include “septa” plugs). For example, since current techniques involve placing a lure directly on an insect trap liner (which is usually a “sticky” card), these lures are often prematurely discarded whenever the insect trap liners are replaced (e.g., replacing an insect trap liner every ten days and having to discard the pherenome lure that may last up to thirty days).
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a durable transparent insect trap that could be used for multiple seasons and is entirely recyclable. It is also desirable to provide an insect trap that could be easily placed on locations having diameters larger than the clearance of the insect trap hangers, and then easily removed. Furthermore, it is desirable to provide a structure that allows a lure to be placed within the insect trap, yet away from the insect trap liner, so that the lure and the insect trap liner could be replaced independent of each other.